Review: The Game-The Documentary 2

The Game graced the world with his 6th studio album, The Documentary 2 on Friday, October 9. The album is the sequel to the Compton rapper’s classic album, The Documentary. The album is filled with rap star features such as Kanye West and Snoop Dogg. Also, it features production by Dr.Dre and Bongo ‘The Drum Gahd.’ The album and its entirety is a tribute to Game’s hometown of Compton, California and continues to solidify the presence of West coast rap in the industry. 20 Watts writers Joanna Agwanda and Kemet High decided to dig into the album together.

TRACKS 1-5

Joanna The album is really starting out strong with “On Me” featuring Kendrick Lamar. The rappers go back and forth on a West coast sound that is clearly mixes groovy-ness and “street” production. Then we get into “Step up” and “Don’t Trip” which features Ice Cube and Dr. Dre, which is completely G-funk. Even though we are only on the third song, you can tell The Game is going to continuously shout out his gang because he’s replacing the “C” in “cool” with a “B”, making it Blood gang worthy.

K.High: So far this album was made really raw. He’s addressing his pre-industry life through the lyrics and the production, making Compton look real as fuck. As of now, my attention has been grabbed. I’m looking forward to seeing what else he has for us, but I will say that the song featuring Kendrick is insane in the best way.

TRACKS 6–11

Joanna: At this point I’m impressed with The Game’s lyrical talent, even though he has a boatload of features he is not being out rapped by them. I also appreciate that so far nothing is too Hollywood and commercial, which was what I was worried about. He’s still going strong with addressing his life before the fame, which is appropriate because this is the second part of his 2005 The Documentary. Also, the mood changed, the album is being slowed down with the use of piano and it’s becoming more experimental. He’s also being a grown up by addressing his beef he had with 50 cent, describing it as a mistake.

K.High: I’m very shocked that The Game is capable of this. The mood of the album is continuously changing and he’s becoming more versatile but his sound is still very powerful. I’m not completely supporting the song “Hashtag” because I’m not a fan of the chorus, but he did the Rock and Hip Hop fusion well. Now the album is switching again (on song 11), and we are getting into the love portion of the project. The song “Circles” was very interesting. The switch between singing, rapping, and skits was done very well. This whole section of the album shows the progression of a relationship. The song “Dedicated” featuring Future and Sonyae I fuck with because Future is showing us something different from DS2 and that trap sound that we have been associating him with recently.

TRACKS 12-15

Joanna: I see that now the album is changing into the new school Hip Hop. That is understandable because he’s addressing the current time through his production. I also would like to address the seamless change between these songs. Unless the mood is changing, the end of each song flows to the beginning of the next effortlessly, making it hard to hear a track change. I feel as if that flow is very important, and that The Game pulled it off. Also, the song “Bitch you Ain’t Shit” is very “today” and catchy and unnecessarily disrespectful. The song “Summertime” marks another change in the album but The Game continues with the hood salutes. I’m also a fan of “Mula” featuring Kanye, it continues to show the variety of songs on album. Lyrically he is still asserting his dominance, which is the core feature of gangster rap, which originates from Southern California. His gangster rap roots are clearly seen in the song “The Documentary 2,” which connects with the first documentary.

TRACKS 16-END

K. High: He’s finishing this album with the sound of Hip Hop today but he’s doing it with that Cali feel. I’m confused as to why he’s shouting out East coast rappers, I believe he should have kept it purely West side. “100” featuring Drake is already a hit, and “LA” featuring Snoop Dogg, Will.I.am. and Fergie has radio single potential. Overall the entire album sounded like a story, I could have heard it backwards and still be able to hear the transitions and story. It was versatile and I’m impressed with the out come. Songs that should be listen to are “On Me” featuring Kendrick and “Circles” featuring Q-Tip, Eric Bellinger & Sha Sha.

Joanna: This album was well made and was a pleasant surprise. The Game deserves his praises for this one. The production was sound, even though lyrically he was a bit repetitive on topics (always shouting out the hood), I believe he did his thing, he is a gangster rapper after all.